Mulholland Drive: the fantasy behind the film, explained
An analysis argues that Mulholland Drive is the prison fantasy of a saxophonist who killed his wife. The film was released in 2001 and is intended for adults.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Mulholland Drive can be read as the fantasy a jailed saxophonist builds to deny that he killed his vvife after discovering her infidelity. The film, released in 2001 and directed by David Lynch, allows that interpretation, although the film does not confirm it explicitly.
There are films you watch once and forget. Others force you to come back. **Mulholland Drive**, released in **2001** and directed by **David Lynch**, belongs to the second group. It is not an easy film: it has explicit scenes, violence and a structure that breaks in half halfway through. A warning for those who have not seen it: the plot is spoiled here.
## The real story hidden beneath the layers of fantasy
If you strip away the dreamlike elements, the plot boils down to a crime. A saxophonist kills his vvife, whom we will call here the dark-haired woman, after discovering she was unfaithful to him with a man with a thin moustache. The saxophonist hires a private detective, the Motorola man, who films the woman's encounters with her lover. After the murder, the police catch him and he ends up on death row.
That is the base. Everything else is the fantastic recreation the murderer himself makes while in prison. In that fantasy, the four real characters wear masks: the saxophonist, his vvife, the lover and the detective.
## The four real characters and their doubles
There are only four real people in the whole story. The saxophonist, his vvife, the thin-moustached lover and the Motorola detective. In the fantasy, each has an alter ego.
The saxophonist splits in two: the young mechanic and the bald, angry man from the Mercedes. His vvife appears as the blonde. The detective and the bald man even make a phone call together to the mechanic, which suggests that both represent the saxophonist and the detective jealously investigating anyone who gets close to the blonde.
## Why the mechanic cannot have the blonde
The saxophonist's great pain is that his vvife was not satisfied with him. Since he killed her, he invents an alter ego, the mechanic, where things might work out better. There she appears again as a blonde. The bald man from the Mercedes is the guilty self: violent, irascible, unable to please the blonde, even though she is forced to be with him.
The blonde has an affair with the mechanic, that new tailor-made self. But the woman's nature does not disappear: in the fantasy too she sleeps with the thin-moustached lover almost in front of the mechanic. The lover ends up dead, which might allow for a happy ending.
## The interrupted sens that shatters the fantasy
The fantasy is about to end well as they head to the pawnbroker. But the blonde abandons the mechanic in interrupted sens. He cannot have his vvife even in the fantasy. Then the fantasy breaks, the mechanic disappears and the saxophonist returns.
He climbs up to the cabin and there is the Motorola man with his camera, who yells at him to snap out of it. The blonde goes back to the bald man, the alter ego of the bad husband. The detective and the saxophonist kill the bald man. There is a line from the bald man in which he says they are horrible people, and there it becomes clear that they are the same person in two alter egos. A photo shows the bald man, the blonde and the lover: the bald man is the saxophonist. That illustrates the triangle.
The film does not explicitly confirm this reading. It is one interpretation among several possible ones of a film that deliberately plays with ambiguity.
There are films you watch once and forget. Others force you to come back. **Mulholland Drive**, released in **2001** and directed by **David Lynch**, belongs to the second group. It is not an easy film: it has explicit scenes, violence and a structure that breaks in half halfway through. A warning for those who have not seen it: the plot is spoiled here.
## The real story hidden beneath the layers of fantasy
If you strip away the dreamlike elements, the plot boils down to a crime. A saxophonist kills his vvife, whom we will call here the dark-haired woman, after discovering she was unfaithful to him with a man with a thin moustache. The saxophonist hires a private detective, the Motorola man, who films the woman's encounters with her lover. After the murder, the police catch him and he ends up on death row.
That is the base. Everything else is the fantastic recreation the murderer himself makes while in prison. In that fantasy, the four real characters wear masks: the saxophonist, his vvife, the lover and the detective.
## The four real characters and their doubles
There are only four real people in the whole story. The saxophonist, his vvife, the thin-moustached lover and the Motorola detective. In the fantasy, each has an alter ego.
The saxophonist splits in two: the young mechanic and the bald, angry man from the Mercedes. His vvife appears as the blonde. The detective and the bald man even make a phone call together to the mechanic, which suggests that both represent the saxophonist and the detective jealously investigating anyone who gets close to the blonde.
## Why the mechanic cannot have the blonde
The saxophonist's great pain is that his vvife was not satisfied with him. Since he killed her, he invents an alter ego, the mechanic, where things might work out better. There she appears again as a blonde. The bald man from the Mercedes is the guilty self: violent, irascible, unable to please the blonde, even though she is forced to be with him.
The blonde has an affair with the mechanic, that new tailor-made self. But the woman's nature does not disappear: in the fantasy too she sleeps with the thin-moustached lover almost in front of the mechanic. The lover ends up dead, which might allow for a happy ending.
## The interrupted sens that shatters the fantasy
The fantasy is about to end well as they head to the pawnbroker. But the blonde abandons the mechanic in interrupted sens. He cannot have his vvife even in the fantasy. Then the fantasy breaks, the mechanic disappears and the saxophonist returns.
He climbs up to the cabin and there is the Motorola man with his camera, who yells at him to snap out of it. The blonde goes back to the bald man, the alter ego of the bad husband. The detective and the saxophonist kill the bald man. There is a line from the bald man in which he says they are horrible people, and there it becomes clear that they are the same person in two alter egos. A photo shows the bald man, the blonde and the lover: the bald man is the saxophonist. That illustrates the triangle.
The film does not explicitly confirm this reading. It is one interpretation among several possible ones of a film that deliberately plays with ambiguity.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (3 replies).
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